Alder Hey apology over organ scandal

Alder Hey Children's Hospital and the University of Liverpool today apologised for their roles in the retention of children's organs.

Hundreds of organs, including complete hearts and brains, were stored at the Liverpool hospital following post-mortems on children.

Their parents only found out that parts of their children had been kept in storerooms in late 1999.

Angela Jones, chair of the Royal Liverpool Children's NHS Trust, today made a formal and public apology for the scandal.

She said: "As part of the mediation proposals, the Trust willingly agreed to make a formal and public apology for organ and tissue retention, which wrongly occurred in past times and for the way in which inquiries were handled for some parents.

"The death of a child bring unimaginable grief and the Trust, through me today, profoundly apologises where we made this suffering worse."

Professor Drummond Bone, Vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool, also apologised for the institution's role in the scandal.

He said: "The University of Liverpool would wish

to say how sorry it is for the distress caused to so many people by the events of the past and we express our deepest sorrow to all those affected."

Neither Mrs Jones nor Prof Bone were in charge of the hospital and university when the organ retention took place, mainly in the 1980s and 90s.

The parents had been promised that a Government minister would be present at the conference.

David Lammy, parliamentary under-secretary of state for health, was unable to attend and sent his apologies.

He sent a statement which expressed sympathy for parents and pledged to ensure that the mistakes of the past would not be repeated.

The statement read: "I sympathise deeply with any parents who have lost a child. Families who have, in addition, been directly affected by organ retention suffer a double blow.

"As a Government we have taken clear steps to ensure that nobody again experiences this kind of distress.

"This includes a set on interim guidance that will ensure that families receive better information and support, and consent forms that will ensure that consent is clearly sought whenever a hospital seeks to retain tissue or organs after death for purposes such as education, research or training."